Motorola's Droid review: It's the best phone on Verizon

We're getting this out of the way now: Motorola's Droid is the best Google phone on the market.

Maybe that's not saying a whole lot. The Droid's only competitors in the U.S. are T-Mobile's 1-year-old G1, its chubby younger brother the MyTouch 3G and HTC's Droid Eris, a $99 Verizon Wireless phone that comes out Friday -- the same day as the Motorola Droid -- with an already-outdated Android operating system.

Here's another one: Droid is the best phone on Verizon.

As we wrote last week, the Droid marks a notable shift for the nation's largest carrier. Verizon -- often renowned for its service, not its selection of phones -- seems to be wisely minimizing its interference with handset makers.

What we get is an attractive and fast smart phone packed to the brim with features for $199 (with a two-year contract).

The Droid hardware is a technical feat. It has a 5-megapixel camera with a flash that doesn't perform exceptionally well but still pretty great for a phone. The speaker is pleasantly loud. The touch-screen screen is gorgeous -- larger than the iPhone's with way more pixels per inch.

Oh, and it has a keyboard.

After spending plenty of time with the iPhone and MyTouch, we realized just how much we don't miss physical keyboards. Granted, the Droid's isn't as nice as most Blackberry keyboards. We spewed just as many typos on the Droid's black-and-white-and-brown keyboard as we did on software keyboards. Only problem is that we're not offered automatic corrections like we get on the touch-screen keyboard.

Impressively, the slide-out keyboard doesn't add much thickness compared with the iPhone -- the Droid is only slightly bigger and noticeably heavier. The keyboard is a nice option (geeks will enjoy the pro shortcuts), but if you're not digging it, you never have to pull it out.

Motorola takes a step back with its navigation buttons. Competing Android phones use a scroll ball -- you know, that little nub that makes the Blackberry so good for e-mail. Instead, the Droid opts for a four-way rocker navigation with a center button, which sits next to the keyboard and provides little utility.

Under the hood, the Droid runs a version of Android 2.0, becoming the first device that has it. That means it packs features and polish you won't see on the other guys -- most notably the free Google Maps Navigation software.

Android has really come a long way in a year. The software keyboard is smarter, the included apps more sophisticated and the subtleties of switching between programs more natural.

But for as far as Google's operating system has come, it remains several steps behind Apple's iPhone in many respects. Even though we ripped on Apple for leaving out the copy-and-paste feature for so long, there's something to be said about how it was finally implemented. It's simple and works incredibly well.

On the flip side, selecting text on the Droid drives us nuts. The option is hidden behind a menu screen; there's no clever magnifying glass to help you grab the right section; and to copy, you have to again find the option somewhere in the menus.

This design choice underlines a prevalent problem that still plagues Android. Some fairly common actions are hidden, including the basic ability to delete apps.

(Here's a tip so you don't look like a stooge at the Verizon store: Press the lock icon and turn to the right to open the phone. The majority of people who played with our review unit couldn't figure out how to get into the phone.)

Button layouts can vary widely from app to app. Transitioning between the many programs that can run simultaneously works well enough, but some can't be closed while others gobble up battery power with no warning.

Android's Marketplace offers more than 10,000 apps -- that's certainly not on par with Apple's library of 100,000, but Android's selection covers most of the main utilities.

As a game system, it's severely lacking. As a media player, it's even worse.

The iPhone can sufficiently replace a standalone iPod. The Droid won't. Getting songs onto the thing is a hassle. No media sync, no smart playlists, no TV shows or movies.

Sure, we love some of the features Motorola built exclusively for this handset -- things that could never be done on the iPhone without Apple engineers building it themselves. For example, the Droid phone book integrates with your Facebook contacts.

But these little perks don't make up for the intuitiveness and maturity of the iPhone's operating system that Android has yet to match.

Yet, as a phone, the Droid is top-notch. It integrates seamlessly with Google Voice and runs on Verizon, a telecom with a superior reputation for reliable call coverage -- unlike AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone.

For at least the next couple of months, Droid will wear the crowns of best Android device and best Verizon phone.

But Google is constantly making improvements behind the scenes to its mobile system, so who knows how long that will last? With more phone makers on the Google bandwagon, next year could very well mark the Droid renaissance.

-- Mark Milian

Twitter: @markmilian

Video credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[johnny]

Uninstall apps: Market>>my downloads>> delete

add music? its as simple as drag and drop, same thing with video files. i personally prefer drag and drop since i can add files from any computer without the inconvenience of requiring itunes.

[Dave]

100,000 iPhone apps does sounds impressive but how many pull my finger apps do u really need?

[Lucas]

You forgot to list the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment android phones on Sprint.

[Josh]

Well I've been with Verizon for quite some time and have been waiting for a good iPhone competitor. I must say it looks like I finally found what I'm after.

[Bill]

How can you come to the conclusion that "Motorola's Droid is the best Google phone on the market," when you've failed to even mention two [HTC Hero, Samsung Moment] of the better Android phones that are on the market.

[dlo]

"), but if you're not digging it, you never have to pull it out."
ha
that's what she said

[ts]

hold icon to delete and drag it in to the bin at the bottom; couldn't be simpler, MacBoy.

[MrLolz]

Wow, nice advertising copy. Wait, you didn't think we'd be able to tell you dressed it up as a news article?

"Best phone on Verizon" also isn't saying much. That's like picking out the best part of a poop sandwich.

[kaos]

It really is a shame that the iFlunkies have become so complacent to Apple that they've fogotten that drag/drop is MUCH more powerful than letting iTunes do everything for you. You're able to add/remove what YOU want and not everything that Apple wants. Sure, it may not be the one stop app that Apple is pushing, but I like being able to control which files are synced and where those files are going. Besides, iTunes is a bloat and does not run on all operating systems. I'm not tethered to a Windows or Mac system all of the time (even though I have both). My laptop runs Linux.

[Bob]

How do you think it compares to the Hero (not available here yet), which some consider to be the best Android?

[lol]

Hmmm... was this guy a Iphone homer or what!

He didn't mention anything good on this phone, made it sound like it was built in 94...

LOL... they never list the truth. Like apple's apps have to go through apple before approved. With Google you make whatever you want with no big brother.

So if the music program sucks... GUESS What go download pandora. Or develope your own music player.

This phone is lighting fast

[Rich Robinson]

Hmmmm, should i get rid of my Blackberry storm now? I have been getting use to this phone for the last 6 months and my 2 yr renewal is up.

[JCSalazar]

The my touch is actually the slim younger brother to te chubby G1, and theres also two more droids from sprint, the htc hero and the samsung moment.

[Daniel]

Just to address some of the things mentioned in this article...

"Some fairly common actions are hidden, including the basic ability to delete apps."
- No, its not as easy at the iPhone's long press on the icon, but it is not as difficult as the video/article makes it out to be. When you want to remove something, you go to the same place you downloaded it from... the Android Market. There is nothing complicated about that and it actually makes a lot of sense.

"Getting songs onto the thing is a hassle. No media sync, no smart playlists, no TV shows or movies."
- While I agree you don't have a fancy sync software to copy the songs, its really no more difficult than putting songs on a jump drive or burning them to a CD.

"Motorola takes a step back with its navigation buttons. Competing Android phones use a scroll ball..."
- I own a G1 currently, and the little track ball is flimsy and is more of a pain than anything. The D-Pad is much more solid, but I guess this could be a preference thing as well.

"Android's Marketplace offers more than 10,000 apps -- that's certainly not on par with Apple's library of 100,000, but Android's selection covers most of the main utilities."
- This is true, but the iPhone has been out for what, 3 years now? The first Android device was the G1 back in Q4 of 2008, so Android has been out for about a year. When the G1 first came out it wasn't really anything special either, and many developers wanted to see where it went before focusing on developing for the device. With so many Android phones being released, you can count on the app store to grow very quickly.

"As a game system, it's severely lacking. As a media player, it's even worse."
- I will have to agree on it lacking as a game system, it really can only play games similar to what the Game Boy Color / Game Boy Advance could play years ago. Of course, gaming is supposed to be much better on the Droid so we will have to wait and see what developers come up with.
- As for the media player, I haven't really listened to music on my G1 because of the lack of a audio port with the dongle, but you forget one core difference in the iPhone vs Android: openness. I'm sure there are already numerous apps that play music and more will be released as time goes on.

The article seems a little biased toward the iPhone, but other than that its not a bad read.

[lyn]

FIRST OF ALL NICE PHONE AND IT MAKES ME SICK THAT I CAN'T GET MY HANDS ON IT ,AND I HAVE A REASON WHY, BUT ANYWAY
I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS GUY ...., IT'S THE BEST PHONE ON VERIZON. BUT ITS NOT THE BEST PHONE IN THE WORLD.....

[jerry www]

Somewhere deep in its history, isn't this thing also supposed to be a phone? All this verbiage and no mention of how well or if at all it works to make and receive calls, which for what might be a very small part of the market (i.e., me), is the reason it's been selected. I'd love to have an Apple phone with all its apps, but that's out of the question for me because I use it every day for business and it has to work wherever I wander, which my present Motorola Verizon flip phone does, even though it feels very flimsy. If only they could bring back that tough brute, the StarTac....

www.boskolives.wordpress.com

[kcw]

Nice article...

[woodbourne]

Interesting review of a phone. What's never ever mentioned is how well the thing performs as a phone. I'm sure it's just wonderful to be able to cut/paste but my big problem as I travel the world is reception and clarity. These are never ever mentioned in a "review". This is the essential purpose of a phone for many millions of americans who can wait an hour or two to get their email but don't want to miss any calls. I guess it's just too hard to actually TEST the device, much easier to play with it and then pontificate.

[Uncle Bernie]

Thanks for an honest review. I have recently abandoned ATT for Verizon because
the coverage was so bad. I settled on a Blackberry Tour and after you have owned
an iPhone, everything else sucks. Getting an app on this thing is a major pain.

Can't wait for iPhone on Verizon.

[Enlil242]

Um, you call this a review? First, not every phone / PED needs to copy the iphone. Do you really think that this phone is complicated?! Come'on. I'll just reiterate what "johnny" said...

Apple makes it MORE complicated by making you sync music and videos from itunes, and itunes only. I can movie music from my work computer, to my home computer and vice-versa. The built in music player, while not great, is adequate, but there are others you can download.

Try finding another music / video player in the app store... ooops, you can't … So much for the 100k apps.

You act as though 3D gaming is an important feature... Maybe to you, but most have a PSP or DS for that... no need for a device without physical controls.

And you fail to mention one of the most important features of the Android OS... MULTI-TASKING!!!

The physical keyboard also attracts more than BlackBerry users...

How do you uninstall apps on a PC? complicated? You must have a mac...

If I were you, I would stick with your iphone, smart users who want choice and customizable interfaces will choose an android phone. Apple can lower the price all they want, but soon, the competition will start providing better devices (already are, IMO) and then, even lawsuits won't be able to help AAPL...

[Brian]

"The Droid's only competitors in the U.S. are T-Mobile's 1-year-old G1, its chubby younger brother the MyTouch 3G and HTC's Droid Eris, a $99 Verizon Wireless phone that comes out Friday -- the same day as the Motorola Droid -- with an already-outdated Android operating system."

Ummm...HTC Hero and Samsung Moment on Sprint. Good job factfinding!

[David Lee Evans]

Give them time, the iPhone had years of no real competitive competition. Heck when they launch the iPod and later the iPhone, they had no business model for an apps store or SDK for third party developers; my point here is that developers made the iPhone what it is today, well ok, so when the iPhone came out, there was nothing equivalent to the iPhone in the mobile hardware platform market. But now all of that has changed with the Droid. Just wait until developers start to switch from developing for the iPhone and hence stop contributing to the sucess of the Apple store and it's unfathomable submission approval process and crippled SDK, and start to develope to for the open
android platform.

[Neil]

Great review! Was waiting for an honest one. Was going to pick one up but helped me decided to probably wait for the other android based phones to come out or for Apple decided to let Verizon customers have their iphones.

[Ness in Silverlake]

Looks kinda bulky and dated.....

[varinder]

awsom.................